Tapuya (Nov 2024)
Commoning practices: the political significance of facts
Abstract
Within this cluster, which beckons a collective exploration of facts, this contribution hinges upon two overarching discussions. Firstly, it underscores that facts are not self-evident entities independent of human experiences, challenging conventional notions of natural environmental causality. The second discussion posits that the social life and significance of facts in Latin America are determined by what facts do or can potentially do. I explore how socio-environmental entanglements transform into certainties and convictions – facts that either permit or obstruct political decisions regarding collective environmental actions. Inquiring into the potential actions of facts is an integral aspect of civic epistemology, as defined in science studies, which traces “the institutionalized practices by which members of a given society test and deploy knowledge claims used as a basis for making collective choices” [Jasanoff (2005). Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 255]. My contribution to this debate lies in elucidating how these institutionalized practices are ingrained across diverse social scales, extending far beyond the realms of technoscientific scenarios and state institutions, within the fabric of everyday commoning practices.
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